Alibaba signs deal to offer Disney shows on video platforms

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Alibaba Team Holding Ltd’s leisure arm has signed a licensing settlement with Walt Disney Co in a offer that will supply the Chinese group’s Youku video streaming system with the greatest Disney animation selection in China.

Alibaba mentioned in a press launch on Monday that the multi-calendar year licensing settlement signed in between Alibaba Electronic Media and Amusement Team and Disney subsidiary Buena Vista International Inc will see far more than 1,000 Disney episodes launched on Alibaba platforms which incorporate established-top rated boxes.

The offer comes as Disney has confronted hurdles in finding digital tv written content into China. In 2016, its DisneyLife on-line written content venture, which it introduced with Alibaba, was shut down by Chinese regulators a lot less than 5 months soon after operations began. The reason for the shutdown was not produced general public.

FILE Photograph: The signal of Walt Disney Studios Park is witnessed at the entrance at Disneyland Paris ahead of the 25th anniversary of the park in Marne-la-Vallee, in close proximity to Paris, France, March 21, 2017. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier/File Photograph

“The addition of Disney written content drastically enriches the library of excellent global written content on Alibaba’s media and leisure ecosystem, giving us a main edge in international written content distribution in China,” mentioned Yang Weidong, president of Youku at Alibaba Electronic Media and Amusement Team.

Alibaba did not disclose the value of the offer.

Youku reaches 580 million products and will get about 1.2 billion sights every working day, according to Alibaba’s information web-site Alizila. It mentioned the system now has similar licensing bargains with Warner Bros., Paramount, Fox, NBCUniversal and Sony Images Tv, amid other individuals.